Growing The Voices: Festival 500 is a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to making singing accessible to everyone. Because singing belongs to everyone and everyone has the capacity to learn to sing. Unfortunately, many people don’t know or believe this to be true.

Instant Choir is one of the singing programs that we have been offering since 2014. It is an opportunity for people to create community through singing, and laughing, together. It’s a lot of fun! Everyone is welcome. No singing experience is necessary. Our expert facilitators teach you to sing a song, together in harmony, over the course of an hour.

The first Bay Roberts Instant Choir is happening on Saturday, March 2nd at the Bay Roberts Mall. Singing starts at 11 am. It will be led by Bay Robert’s own Sonya Gosse. At the end of the hour, we will video record the last version of everyone singing together and post it on Growing The Voices: Festival 500’s social media channels, available for everyone to share and enjoy over and over again.

Background

Growing The Voices has been eager to expand its programs into the rest of the province. At the same time, the National Arts Centre has expressed interested in the work our organization is doing in singing development and accessibility. It is through NAC’s generous offer to support an expansion that we have been able to do just that.

Growing The Voices: Festival 500 has chosen to direct these resources to launch Instant Choir in Bay Roberts. And to have Sonya Gosse lead this expansion.

For those not familiar with Sonya’s work, she recently moved ‘home’ from central Canada following a distinguished career with the Canadian Opera Company. She is now settled back into the Bay Roberts area, teaching singing and conducting choirs.